Market for Immaterial Value (2015-ongoing)

Economy is far too important to leave it only in the hands of the economists. When the consequences of financial gambling have such an impact on society, economy is everybody’s business. However, the territory is vast, overwhelming and, most often, disarming. We wish to create a shared space that can empower us on the topic, in which we can imagine and test different scenarios for the future. Market for Immaterial Value is thus a prototype simulating an alternative working of the economy. By putting it into practice, we want to explore how action can transform thinking. What is the role of artists in a financialized world? How is art created, validated, and disseminated, and what are the conditions of its production and exchange? MFIV is an ongoing investigation of such questions. It does so in part by setting up experimen- tal market structures for art. Specifically, a market is being created around a coin-like sculpture, with the public being offered the possibility of actively participating in the value creation by becoming shareholders; the total sum of equities determines the value of the artwork. The market manifests in festivals, biennials, exhibitions and self-organized salons, as a spatial installation of an architectural model in 1:1 scale. Our discursive formats range from one-to-one encounters with interested ‘shareholders’, interviews with experts, dinner-discussions with invited guests and shareholders meetings. By travelling in different countries, the market is informed by the constantly growing collective of shareholders and the contribution of experts and public.